How to Sew a Strawberry Plushie

Many moons ago, the lovely Aly from Bug, Bird and Bee showed us how to sew felt strawberries. We have since made MANY felt strawberries (they are great for play kitchen, but also look ADORABLE as keychains and back pack charms). When my son’s school jumper recently got a hole in it, I thought “ooooh big strawberry, perfect”. So I adapted that oh so easy felt strawberry diy and turned it into a How To Sew a Strawberry Softie DIY!! The Strawberry Softie how to is in honour of the “Sew a Softie Month” organised by the lovely Trixi over at Coloured Buttons. Trixi is passionate about teaching kids to sew and is always looking for great new Sewing Projects for Kids to do. I think it is great to get kids learning basic skills. And watching my kids sew, I sew how much they actually LOVE this traditional craft. Sewing isn’t hard and so long as you pick the right projects, it is really easy and “forgiving” (also known as – you can make mistakes, but your finally sewing project will still look adorable).

So finally. After some procrastination and prompted by the sew a softie challenge, we have had a go at making this ADORABLE Strawberry Softie! I hope you like it too.

NOTE: More step by step IMAGES as well as video how to, to come soon!

Strawberry Softie – Materials

I used my son’s red school jumper (size 9yrs)
Some yellow and green thread
Black thread
Green, black, white and pink felt
Glue (but you can sew the details on too)
Stuffing
Scissors and needle*
Black pen

*remember to use “real needles and real scissors” when sewing with kids. REAL means that the sewing is actually is easier to do. It easier to cut the fabric and it is easier to push the needle through the fabric. Don’t be scared of using good quality “proper” sewing materials with kids

I also have a post here with all the BASIC Hand Sewing STITCHES – super short and simple videos showing you how to do a running stitch and back stitch, the stitches we are using today!

How to Sew a Strawberry Softie

The red strawberry bit

Begin by cutting out a semi circle. As I do not have a plate that is as large as the back of my son’s school jumper, I used the simple “thread and pen” trick to draw a semi circle. Tie the thread to your pen. Hold one the other end of the thread to where you think the centre of your circle should be and carefully draw around this centre. (See image)
Cut out your semi circle to form your Strawberry softie. I reckon you can get at least 3 Strawberry softies out of each school jumper (the front has a logo on it, so not as much red space there!)

Stitch on some yellow seeds – a simple running stitch will do . I sewed mine ROUGHLY like rays coming out the the centre edge of the semi circle. If you don’t want to sew on seeds, you can draw them on with a black pen (or a bit of yellow fabric paint).

Next fold your semi circle in half to make a quarter circle. The “right side” should be facing inwards. Sew along the STRAIGHT edge. I used a back stitch for this edge, because I wanted it nice and secure.
You can now turn your fabric right side out. You can already see your strawberry shape emerging.

Now get a double layer of thread (you want it to be strong). And sew a RUNNING stitch all across the top the curve of the strawberry – NOT sewing the two halves together, but sewing around in a loop. You can then tug at the running stitch and this will gather your fabric.
Stuff to your hearts content. You can stuff with the remainder of the jumper (cut into shreds), wool scraps or softie stuffing that you can buy in the shops.

Once stuffed. Make sure you gather the running stitch nice and tight and then with a few stitches secure in place.

The green leaf bit

Now it is time to add the strawberry softies green leaves. I initially cute 3 large green leaves, but later added another 3 smaller ones. Cut however many you think looks nice PLUS a green disc.
The green disc sits on top of where all the leaves meet. Sew the leaves and disc together and then sew onto your strawberry softie.

The face

Now you can either leave the strawberry as finished OR you can add a cute Kawaii face. As you know we LOVE Kawaii DIYs and this Strawberry is no exception.
I decided to cut out a black circle, little white hearts for the eye’s reflection and pink cheeks from felt. I glued these on with fabric glue , but you can sew them on too.
I then added a black mouth and eyelashes with a black pen. Again, you can sew these on with black embroidery twine.